


Fill the Void

by silvermyth



Series: Fighting Words [3]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M, Non-Explicit Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-06
Updated: 2015-07-06
Packaged: 2018-04-07 23:01:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4281258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silvermyth/pseuds/silvermyth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Axel's sentiment is, burn it down and fill the void. Make new memories to forget ones he'd rather not remember. A one-shot, AU. AkuRoku</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fill the Void

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nicayal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nicayal/gifts).



> Well, this was originally intended to be light-hearted, but it got a little heavy. Oh well. Enjoy!

**Fill the Void**

The acrid smoke stung his eyes, but he couldn’t turn away.

Axel watched the flames licking at his childhood home, face rapt, from the street corner. They danced gleefully against the sides of the building, burning away the site of so many memories, the place where he’d become an empty shell. The fire cleansed the land of those dark deeds in a way Axel himself could never be cleansed.

He would make new memories, better ones, ‘til they buried all of the darkness of his past into nothingness.

The smoke and steam issuing from the wreck as the firefighters arrived with their hoses was an ugly ruin to Axel’s art. He lingered as they drowned his bright canvas, until the hot oranges, shining golds, and burning whites had smoldered into muddy browns and greys.

Then he turned and fled, red spikes swaying behind him.

He had played with fire before, but never committed arson. He wouldn’t even lie to himself that it had been an accident. He had wanted the place to burn for so long, always imagined _it_ at the center of the flickering bonfires he’d set. And now it was done, a pile of dead bones and ash.

He caught a Greyhound, and never looked back.

o – o – o

Sea salt ice cream was scrawled in block letters over the shop door.

“Why would you want _salt_ on _ice cream_?” Axel groaned. “It’s supposed to be sweet, not salty.”

“Don’t knock it ‘til you try it,” the short blond smirked. “What did you say your name was again?”

The redhead leaned down so they were at eye level with each other. “Axel. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?” He stumbled, unbalanced by the alcohol he’d consumed earlier that night, and caught himself on the other man’s shoulder.

“ _Ackssulll_ ,” he slurred. “Remember _my_ name?” He grabbed the taller man’s wrist and held him steady, staring into the glazed green eyes.

“Roxas,” came the immediate answer. Axel straightened with some small effort.

The blond’s lips quirked in a smile. “I always get sea salt ice cream after a night of drinking. It’s like the perfect chaser.” He pulled the glass door open with a jangle and led the way to the counter, ordered two of the advertised treats.

Axel eyed the blue-green popsicle suspiciously, then gave Roxas the same treatment. “I don’t know if I trust you. This is some shady shit.” He held the offending bar to his nose for a sniff.

The bell rang again as the two men exited, ice cream in hand. “Come on, I’ll show you the best place in town to enjoy it.” He winked, and darted his tongue out to lap at his own dessert. “Let’s go, _Axel_.” He tilted his head to indicate a direction, and set off down the street.

Axel trailed after him, holding the curiosity gingerly between a thumb and his first two fingers. He wasn’t sure how long the thing would last in the warm temperature that had persisted, despite the late hour, but the spike-haired blond was moving too fast for him to give it any proper attention. But only a block later, his guide turned a corner into an alley and stopped at a rusty, industrial-grade door. It looked locked, but the blond cast his eyes around for a moment before coming up with a key.

“Hold mine?” Axel obliged, and was now trapped with _two_ of the crazy-flavored ice creams, while Roxas unlocked the foreboding door. “There.” The door, which he had expected to give a noisesome screech, opened instead with soft woosh. He reclaimed his popsicle, which he promptly stuck into his mouth with relish.

“Are we even allowed to be here?” Axel whispered. “Not that I mind.”

Roxas snorted. “Technically? No. But it’s the coolest place.” He pointed at a set of metal stairs just on one side.   “All the way up.”

The two clambered up the stairs, the sound reverberating in the depths of the building as they ascended. The building was dark inside, had an atmosphere of disuse, like an empty shell that had forgotten its purpose. It was an echo of himself, and he liked it, in a twisted sort of way. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a lighter, flicked it on for the warm glow it would provide. After a moment, he let the flame go out. He could make something burn later.

They climbed in silence for some time, and Axel was beginning to wonder how high the building went, when they finally reached a concrete landing, which ended with a metal door. It was smaller than the one they’d come in through, and let back outside, to a narrow ledge that wrapped around the square of the tower they’d ascended. The redhead looked up the sheer sides, and finally realized that he was on the clock tower that watched over the small tourist town.

“This is pretty neat,” Axel remarked, following the pert rear of the blond around the corner. The new side had a wider ledge, and the blond plopped down on it, legs dangling off into empty space. His blue eyes watched as Axel joined him without so much as batting an eye. “I bet the sunsets are killer up here.”

Roxas nodded. “Better than Sunset Hill, if you ask me. Are you even going to eat that?” he indicated the sweet that was now dripping a sticky mess onto Axel’s hand. He’d managed to contain his own with strategic licks and even a couple bites during their trek.

A smile spread on the redhead’s mouth as he brought his hand up and tasted the treat at last. He purposely trailed his tongue in a languid, suggestive sweep up the side it, green eyes smoldering at blue. “Hmm, not bad.” The salty sweetness was an interesting combination, he decided. Roxas had been right: it made a good chaser to alcohol. But he could think of an even better one. He made a deliberate attempt to clean his hand with his mouth, taking special care to suck the sticky liquid off each finger.

Roxas watched, transfixed, his own half-eaten popsicle stopped halfway to his mouth.

Axel chuckled as he returned his attention to the ice cream that remained on the stick. “I like the flavor a lot,” he murmured, eyes flicking down, before returning to the blond. “Salty,” lick, “sweet,” lick, “so,” lick, “delicious,” he breathed the last word.

Roxas huffed and turned away with a faint blush, looking out over the town as he nursed the rest of his treat. “I will not let this ice cream go to waste.” He gave Axel a sidelong glance, where the redhead was sporting a mischievous grin.

“No one said it had to go to _waste_ ,” he purred, inching closer to the blond. Sticking the popsicle between his teeth for safekeeping, Axel leaned over, one hand on the ledge for balance, while the other tugged at his companion’s collar until he turned and they were face to face. Releasing the blond, he pulled the frozen treat from his mouth slowly, making sure it was messy. He lowered his eyes coyly, even as he used his popsicle-laden hand to steer the shorter man’s face closer.

Roxas didn’t resist; his tongue darted out to lap at the other’s lips, a hum of appreciation vibrating in his throat as Axel thrust the bar between them and gave it another hearty, messy suck, before the two mouths joined in an icy, salty-sweet impact. It was an interesting sensation, the heat of the kiss, interspersed with the cold of the ice cream, the flavor of the treat melting into each other’s natural flavors.

As they jointly lapped at a mostly-bare stick, Axel pulled back a little to catch his breath. “See, not wasting it.” His eyes danced with an internal fire, and Roxas pulled him back down to meet his lips without a word, relishing in the uninhibited warmth that built without the ice cream to temper it. Their precarious position so high above the ground was dizzying, only adding to the rushing fervor that dogged them.

Roxas had tangled his fingers securely in the mane of red spikes by the time they broke apart again. The blond laughed, an abrupt, low, and enticing rush of sound against Axel’s ear, followed by a firm, succinct command of, “Inside.” Axel took one look at the dark suggestion in the blue eyes, and was almost scrambling to navigate along the narrow ledge, around the corner, and through the heavy metal door.

The shorter man pinned him against it as soon as they were through, stretching up on his toes as he pressed against the redhead, tugging at the other man’s clothes.

The empty building filled with the sounds of their breaths, coming in soft gasps and moans, the wet sound of their mouths meeting and parting, only to meet again. A quiet rustle of clothing shed in haste.

The concrete was cold against Axel’s back when they reached the floor, but the rest of his body burned as the blond moved his nude body against him, their dance a frantic one, between two empty souls. It didn’t even matter which of them was physically filled; their meeting was so much more than that. The gasps and moans rose to cries of pleasure, throaty release. The louder sounds echoed, mocking the sound of their hearts.

Roxas’ voice rose in a tremor as they lay sated, limbs entangled. “Do you…remember what it was like to feel?”

Axel studied the dark shape propped on elbows, just above him. They shared that, the emptiness, had recognized it in each other at the bar. “Sometimes,” he murmured. “But…I can make new memories.”

Even in the gloom, Roxas could see the shine of green eyes. “With a nobody?”

“Together, are two nobodies still nobodies?” Axel grinned at his attempt at philosophy. “Rox-as,” he enunciated.

A smile pulled at the blond’s lips, and he toyed with a lock of red hair. “Then I guess you should give me your number, _Ax-el_.”

The redhead hummed in agreement. “You better not forget it.”


End file.
